Uncategorized

Caterpillar Shareholders Reject Israel Resolution

While protestors rallied outside, members of Caterpillar’s Board of Directors voted down a resolution today that would have stopped the use of the company’s equipment in the razing of homes in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Reuters reports,

Caterpillar Inc. shareholders on Wednesday defeated a proposal that would have asked the company to re-evaluate selling bulldozers to the Israeli army.

[…]

“We have tremendous compassion for the families involved,” said Jim Owens, who recently took over as Caterpillar’s chairman and chief executive. “But with more than 2 million machines and engines out there, we don’t have the practical ability or the legal right to determine how our products are used after they are sold.”

Not to draw an “absurd parallel,” but isn’t that what IG Farben said about their ovens?

19 thoughts on “Caterpillar Shareholders Reject Israel Resolution

  1. Why pick on Caterpillar? Anyone know who makes Semtex?
    Lets face it, If there were no explosives being hitched on to juveniles and getting sent into Israel, there would be no need for bulldozers.

  2. That’s not at all true! I’d like to see the evidence for your assertion. House demolitions occur to punish the families of suicide bombers and as a disincentive. That has always been the policy of the IDF. Either way, my point about explosive use by Palestinians underlying the need for bulldozers remains valid.

  3. I can’t believe you use one old(2001) unsustantiated report as your evidence. I am still saying to you that it is not the IDF or Israel’s policy to demolish Palestinian houses for no reason. In addition, a ‘buffer zone’ has never been created. A fence was built, for obvious reasons. I am saying think about the explosives before the bulldozers, mate!

  4. Enough house demolitions have occured to create buffer zones (or for whatever reason)to warrant criticism.
    (As irrelevant as it is, Israel was demolishing houses way before Semtex was invented.)
    Thank you, though, I’ll think of explosives at the same time as bulldozers from now on.

  5. Ah buffer zones. Is any compensation sent to said families ? And those orchards aren’t so easily compensated for, either — even when they’re being uprooted and *resold* to new, Jewish knitted-kippa owners.
    And: How much warning time are these families given? A day? More? (How much would your family need, and want?)
    I know, i know: It’s painful to believe our intentions might be anything other than defensive — and not vindictive and base — and rabid.
    .rob adams

  6. Um, right. Because you certainly wouldn’t want to draw an “absurd parallel.”
    Come on. Come fucking on.

  7. So now every time a company’s products are used for something that people may not agree with the company should be punished. Anybody else realize that makes no sense.

  8. rob adams wrote: ” Is any compensation sent to said families ? ”
    Saddam used to send compensation to people who had their houses bulldozed IIRC
    and ICAHD sometimes helps rebuild I think
    But as far as I know the Israeli gov’t gives them abolutely nothing
    One of the most progressive Jewish principles of old is now being put to the test: “In those days they shall say no more, ‘The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’. But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.” (Jeremia, 31.)
    A suicide bomber kills himself. Should his orphan children be punished for that?
    The Israeli army of occupation says: Yes, indeed! Furthermore, anyone who helps the children is a criminal, an accomplice, a supporter of terrorism. If the potential suicide bomber knows that his family will starve after his death, he might shrink from committing the deed. But if he knows that somebody will take care of his family, his readiness to become a martyr will be strengthened.
    That is to say: “The fathers have eaten a sour grape and the children’s teeth shall be set on edge. Every one shall die for his fathers iniquity, the teeth of his whole family shall be set on edge.”
    In recent times, this logic has frequently been acted upon. When Stalin’s secret police arrested a man as an “imperialist spy”, his family was dispersed, his wife sent to the Gulag and the children to the party’s orphanage. The Nazis created the term “Sippenhaft“, meaning that the whole family is responsible for the acts of any of its members. Until now, such methods were associated with totalitarian regimes.

    Sharon’s Second Front : The Children’s Teeth by Uri Avnery

  9. businesses that make devices that kill should be held accountable .. armored bulldozers have no other explainable purpose

  10. The degree of ignorance and naivity on this blog just amazes me. Do you really think that Catepillar manufactures armoured bulldozers? or just maybe, it is the Israeli army who modifies them to protect their soldiers from armed Palestinians. Displacing the blame for their misfortunes has been a constant tactic of the Palestinians, please don’t collude with them by perpetuating that rubbish.

  11. mobius is a scumbag. I’m thinking he’s a stormfronter who posts stuff for the sole purpose of testing reactions to it, so he can report back to others

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

The reCAPTCHA verification period has expired. Please reload the page.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.